Live 3D Safaris From Wild Earth – Exclusive Feature

Apr 26, 2011 1 Comment by Jonathan Tustain

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3D FOCUS: How would you expect an operator broadcasting your live 3D safari to make a return on their investment?

Graham: Certainly at this stage we would leave it up to them. The reality is that no 3D channels are making profits, but nor do their investors and owners expect them to be making profits at this point in the cycle.

I think that the vision here is to say 3D is being used in the cinema space to try and increase revenues which have been traditionally falling for a while. The reality is that it is harder to pirate a 3D movie which forces people to go to the cinema. I think that on the television side there is a fear of Internet distribution and there is a belief that it is going to become progressively harder for pay TV operators to justify a lengthy subscription. There is a huge trend towards VOD around the world and that obviously works on a pay-per-view basis which shifts away from the revenue and income streams these media companies have become very addicted to.

The Pay TV operators are thinking that 3D is like HD in that it will help to increase average revenues over the coming years. Maybe not this is year, maybe not even next year, but over the coming years.

3D FOCUS: What 3D Internet viewing methods are you offering your viewers?

Graham: We delivered anaglyph to very luke warm results. I think that if there is a market for 3D on the Internet it lies in head mounted displays like Cinemizers, particularly the zeiss cinemizer 290x300 Live 3D Safaris From Wild Earth Exclusive Feature new HD Cinemizers which are about to launch in the next month for MIPTV. We have a partnership with Zeiss and we will be offering our 3D podcasts via iTunes for the HD Cinemizer.

3D Focus: What new projects are you working on?

Graham: Our new project is a live dive in 3D on the eastern coast of South Africa at a place called Shark Park. We are planning to do a daily 2 hour dive with sharks, whales, dolphins, turtles and whatever else comes along, but primarily sharks to give people the experience of diving with sharks without getting wet or bitten.

3D FOCUS: What are the challenges for shooting 3D underwater?

Graham: We encountered quite a few challenges were shooting underwater in 3D. You can’t shoot a wide enough angle using beam-splitter/mirror rigs because there is a theoretical limit on what a mirror can do in terms of a wide angle. So we were forced to shoot side by side but at the same time we needed to get our inter-ocular distance extremely low. The only way we could do that was with Gopro sport cameras. Although the dynamic range is poor the actual 3D result is astounding.

3D FOCUS: How do you plan to offer live 3D on the Internet?

Graham: Youtube is the area where we have done the most work. We are a Beta partner with Youtube Live which is not yet 3D but as a Beta partner, when Youtube do end up doing live 3D, then I am sure we will be the first to do it.

Live 3D over the web really is an incredible experience if you wear a head-mounted display. That is truly where it gets really interesting. So if you are commuting on the train to work and it's crowded and there are people all around you and you put on a pair of cinemizers and escape to Africa or dive with sharks live in 3D for 20 minutes that is a really valuable experience for somebody. If you can do that via your iPhone, in HD and in real time, then that is awesome. I see that the best application for 3D on the Internet will be through mobiles on head-mounted displays.

ALERT – Exclusive video interview with Graham Wallington and Zeiss Cinemizers below!

3D FOCUS: Tell me more about the Cinemisers. Is it like looking at a large 3D TV screen?

Graham: That's it. You don't get the shuttering effect because there is no shutter. You obviously get proper colour because it is not anaglyph. It is an extremely high quality experience.

3D FOCUS. Are you going to be supporting set-top boxes?

Graham: We have not begun work on it but we have done a lot of talking about Boxee, PS3 and Xbox. When I say a lot of talking but not acting it is because there is quite a lot of development that is involved and one wants to be confident that one's doing the right thing. We are also on Samsung Connect TV in the U.S also in 3D. We do it for free so it is not a very big distribution but it was quite important to us in terms of just getting our toes wet and we're doing that again through our partners Zoo Vision. It is really important to experiment and to see what is happening in the connect TV and set-top box market.

3D FOCUS: Finally, what has Wild Earth 3D got planned for the future?

Graham: I think you should look at the website www.sasashani.com. It is our holding company and there you will be able to find some more information about our vision which is bigger than just wildlife. The vision is to take the concept of immersive experiences, which usually involves live but can also include stereoscopic 3D. We are using Wild Earth as a sort of beginning point but we want to expand this out into other genres.